All posts tagged Kirk Hammet

RollingStone.com has exclusively debuted “Salt The Wound”, announces Nuclear Blast, the first new song in four years by Bay Area thrash metal architects EXODUS featuring a guest guitar solo by original EXODUS & current METALLICA guitarist Kirk Hammett and lead vocal work by returning band frontman Steve “Zetro” Souza. Stream the track & watch the lyric video HERE.

“Having Kirk play on the new EXODUS record kind of came about after I played so many shows with Metallica while touring with Slayer over the past four years,” shares guitarist & songwriter Gary Holt. “It started the same way most of these things do, as a lot of chatter while having a good time, but Kirk was more stoked to play on the new record than anyone. He never got to play on anything with EXODUS since the first demo despite being a founding member, so I think it really meant a lot to him. Coming full circle so to speak. So I chose the song ‘Salt The Wound’ since I thought the rhythm section for the first lead was right in his wheelhouse, and he killed it! He came in and busted out several takes and his solo compliments mine perfectly. Then we drank beer and ate barbecue! Epic time!”

About his recent experience recording with his first heavy metal band, Hammett revealed to RollingStone.com this past July: “It felt really casual, really cool – just like it did back in 1980 when we were all just hanging out back in the day.”

Hammett is one of three special guests whose work graces Blood In, Blood Out, EXODUS’ tenth studio album due out on October 14th in North America. Electronic music producer Dan the Automator (GORILLAZ, MIKE PATTON, DELTRON 3030) crafts an industrial sound bed on the intro to the album opener ‘Black 13’ and TESTAMENT frontman Chuck Billy lends his signature roar to ‘BTK.’

In other news, Gary Holt will appear as a guest judge on this week’s episode of Top Chef Duels on the Bravo network, judging a full vegan meal alongside fellow heavy metal veterans Rob Zombie and Scott Ian. The episode airs tomorrow, September 10th at 7 p.m. PACIFIC / 9 p.m. CENTRAL / 10 p.m. EASTERN.

The digital version of Blood In Blood Out will include the digital bonus track “Angel Of Death” (ANGEL WITCH cover).

The album’s Japanese edition includes the “Protect Not Dissect” bonus track featuring Rat from THE VARUKERS/DISCHARGE.

EXODUS will head out with fellow metal titans Slayer and Suicidal Tendencies on a U.S. tour this November sponsored by Scion. This “destined to be legendary” tour launches on November 11th with two shows at The Fox Theater in Oakland, California. The 26-show trek includes nine headlining off-dates with additional performances to be announced soon. Tickets are on sale now via the links on the official EXODUS Facebook page.

Due to the overwhelmingly demand, EXODUS VIP Experience packages are now available for the entire tour via SLOtix.com. Visit the site for tour package details.

All EXODUS VIP Experience attendees will be included in a giveaway for either an autographed Gary Holt signature guitar or an EXODUS guitar. At the end of the tour, Gary Holt will personally call the winner himself to announce that they’ve won!

Tickets are on sale now via the links on the official EXODUS Facebook page.

ABOUT EXODUS

With a career spanning 34 years, EXODUS have not only helped shape and define the thrash metal genre for over three decades, but continually seek to raise its standards. One of the forefathers of the Bay Area scene that became known and envied throughout the world, the band’s 1985 debut album, Bonded By Blood, has since become a legacy album featuring mandatory live staples such as “Strike Of The Beast,” “A Lesson In Violence,” and the album’s title track. Formed in 1980, the band’s original members included Tom Hunting on drums, Kirk Hammett (Metallica), Tim Agnello on guitars, and Carlton Melson on bass. With a line-up that has evolved throughout the years, the current incarnation of EXODUS charges into the future with returning frontman Steve “Zetro” Souza on vocals, Gary Holt and Lee Altus on guitars, Tom Hunting on drums, and Jack Gibson on bass. In 2014, EXODUS closed the first half of the year with stellar performances at Kirk Hammett’s Fear FestEvil and Rock On The Range, as well as a groundbreaking tour with fellow thrash legends Slayer and Suicidal Tendencies. To date, EXODUS has released nine studio albums, two live albums, and one compilation. Their most recent release, Exhibit B: The Human Condition, debuted in the Billboard Top 200 Albums chart in 2010.

From February 6th to 8th, METALLICA guitarist Kirk Hammett held his first ever Fear FestEvil convention In San Francisco, CA at The Regency Ballroom. he spoke with Noisey during the event; an excerpt from the interview is available below:

Q: You’re probably tired of answering this, but how have you adapted your views on piracy since the ’90s and the Napster lawsuit?

Hammett: “It’s just become too big of a beast to try to control. The best thing to do is to try to put a positive spin on it and embrace it for what it is because it’s still keeping our music alive and out there, and people are still hearing us and listening to us. We’re just learning how to roll with the changes. The whole piracy thing, the whole Internet thing, really destroyed the record industry, and it ended up changing music and the way it even sounds. Now, it just seems like there’s less of a drive to be the best musician you can be or the best band that you can be because you can record anything, and put it out there, and people will say, ‘Hey, that’s great!’ or, ‘No, that’s sucks,’ whatever. It used to be that you had to really work hard to earn the respect selling albums, competing with all the other great bands making great albums—that just doesn’t exist anymore. Everyone just kinda throws an album out there and it kinda just floats around in the cyber-world.”

“What I miss is, there was a time when people would rally behind bands. When an album came out, it was a huge event that everyone spoke about, and you’d go down to the record store and see other people buying it and other people excited, and, ‘Have you heard this yet!?’ ‘No, I haven’t!’—all that is gone now because of the Internet. The convenience of it is great but it really put a big fuckin’ kibosh on all that shit. Maybe I’m lamenting that a little bit, but it was a great time to be a musician, or a fan, and now because of this culture of convenience we have, it’s just changed differently. Now, I’m glad that we’re an established band but I’d hate to be a band that was just starting out because it’s so much more difficult and the musical audience seems much more divided these days from person to person, whereas back in the day, it was a musical community thing, and now it’s all divided, and separated, and everyone’s just on their own course.”

According to Journaldemontreal.com, after several unsuccessful attempts by organizers, Metallica are rumoured to headline sixth edition Heavy Montréal, being held August 8, 9 and 10 August at Parc Jean-Drapeau on Île Sainte -Hélène in Quebec.
The official schedule for Heavy Montréal will be announced this Monday, March 3rd at 6PM and weekend passes will go on sale on Friday, March 7th at noon on Heavymontreal.com.

Says organizer Nick Farkas: “From its inception in 2008, Heavy MTL was created as a festival that would embrace the heavier side of music, from guitar rock to metal and everything in between. For 2014 we are excited to present a reinvigorated Heavy Montréal. With a brand new look and a programming direction that returns to our roots, 2014 is poised to be Heavy’s break out year.”

This year, the festival is also introducing a new logo, in the image of its renewed identity. The logo and the new identity were created by artist PatHamou under the direction of Heavy Montréal’s programming team.

“We wanted to have a logo that reflects our roots but that also celebrates Montreal and its landmarks,” added Nick Farkas.”The logo also represents our desire to be more inclusive. We are very happy with the result.”

Capital Chaos TV has posted interview and live footage featuring EXODUS, shot in San Francisco, CA at Slim’s:

Exodus are confirmed for METALLICA guitarist Kirk Hammett’s Fear FestEvil, taking place from February 6th – 8th at The Regency Ballroom in San Francisco, CA. Exodus’ appearance is scheduled for February 7th.

When it comes to thrash metal, in particular Bay Area thrash, Exodus are one of the true Godfathers. Formed in 1980 by guitarist Tim Agnello, drummer Tom Hunting, bassist Carlton Melson and some other six-stringer called Kirk Hammett, Agnello soon left, allowing Hammett’s guitar tech Gary Holt to step up and in.

Hammett then stumbled across Paul Baloff, a demo was recorded, Hammett left to join some other upstarts, Rick Hunolt took the other guitar, and the rest became history. Their 1984 debut Bonded By Blood is a stonewall genre classic, and with cranium crunching classics such as ‘A Lesson In Violence’, ‘Strike Of The Beast’ and ‘Burn, Hollywood, Burn’, we can promise that this will not be a calm or gentle soiree more than an aural beatdown.

The current lineup of Holt, Lee Altus on guitar, Hunting,Jack Gibson on bass and Rob Dukes on vocals has been in place since 2007. Exodus’ last album was 2010?s Exhibit B: The Human Condition on Nuclear Blast Records, and the band have just started working on new material for a prospective release later in 2014.

Tickets for Kirk Hammett’s Fear FestEvil preview and dinner on February 6th are now on sale. Have dinner with Kirk and some of the event’s most notable horror names as well as a preview of the crypt, signings and photo ops before anyone else! Extremely limited, so get your ticket now. For tickets visit this location.

ANTHRAX guitarist Scott Ian and Joel Harlow Designs will be at Fear FestEvil taking part in a live Blood And Guts event. Fans can watch Joel transform Scott, live and unedited, into a vision of Victorian killer Jack The Ripper! Series director-producer Jack Bennett will be on hand to moderate.